


first breath after coma

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel 616
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-15
Updated: 2012-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-29 15:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/321230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes her thirty seconds to formulate a plan. It’s a shitty, half-baked, save-this-for-last-and-keep-thinking plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	first breath after coma

**Author's Note:**

> written to [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0o8JCxjjpM) explosions in the sky song.

It’s Thursday, so that means the world is ending. Today, the bad guy is being especially stubborn about getting put down. They’re all beaten and bruised, but they push on through the metallic tang of blood in their mouths. The problem is the hive mind. There’s so many underlings that just keep coming, each of them with the same precise amount of skill, that no one has been able to break through to the control center. They’re gaining ground, slowly but surely. Carol isn’t sure it’s quite fast enough, though.

When Peter runs out of Borg jokes, she’s certain it’s not fast enough. It takes her thirty seconds to formulate a plan. It’s a shitty, half-baked, save-this-for-last-and-keep-thinking plan. At least until the moment Tony falls to the ground, unconscious, and the drones swarm all over him.

“Jess! Jessica!” she yells, fighting to be heard over the din. “Zap me! I’ve got a plan!”

There’s three things about Carol’s powers that she never tells anyone. One is that the lack of her Binary power still aches inside her like a phantom limb after all these years. Two is that part of the reason she doesn’t let loose with energy very often is because it makes her feel as close to having that power again as she has since that whole thing with Cru. She loves feeling like her old self again in the moment, but hates it after the adrenaline fades. Three is that absorbing energy hurts like a motherfucker.

Every type of energy feels different. She’s not sure what it would feel like if she absorbed her own energy, but she knows Spider-Woman’s feels like little bites all over her skin and like someone messed with her spine so all the nerves along it light with some strange sort of pleasure/pain sensation. It’s the kind of energy she can’t hold onto for long, but she does, letting just enough leak out of her to keep the drones away from her as she flies as fast as she can to the control tower. Once she’s there, she lets loose. All the energy stored in her — Jess’, her own, things she’s picked up elsewhere… It all goes in one blast.

Her plan works. The part of the tower sending out signals to the hive mind is destroyed. But the entire tower goes with it, sparks flying, things blowing up, and tons of steel and concrete collapse on Carol.

Her world goes dark.

 

 

She dreams in black and white of places she hasn’t been in years.

She sees her brother Steve smiling at her.

She sees her first girlfriend smirking from above her again.

She sees Ace again and the Eiffel Tower from outside her window.

She sees Jessica in color, blurred, saying her name over and over again

 

It’s wrong. Everything is white, even the chairs, the heart monitor has become white noise, and everything is _wrong_. Carol looks pale against the sheets, the dark red and mottled black of the cuts and bruises on her face and neck making her seem even more ashen. Jessica's ass is asleep. The hospital chairs are uncomfortable and part of her just wants to perch on a wall. But everything is wrong and she’s not leaving.

“Hey.”

She turns, and there’s a paper cup of the sludge the hospital calls coffee in front of her. Tony’s behind it. She takes the coffee and sips at it, suppressing a grimace. She brushes hair away from her face and looks at Tony out of the corner of her eye. “Thanks,” she says.

Tony shrugs and keeps his eyes on Carol, worry etched into every part of him. Silence reigns for a long moment. “She’ll be alright,” Tony says finally. “She’s made of some of the toughest stuff I’ve ever seen.”

Jessica wonders whether he’s trying to reassure himself or her. Both, maybe. She thinks back to Westchester, to Carol sobbing, to a hand in hers and a story told to bewildered teammates. She thinks back to seeing Carol smile after the Avengers left, to the way she laughed a few hours later. She thinks back to the memories Carol had shared with her, to talks of imprisonment, of undercover missions, of people she'd killed. She thinks of the slightly haunted expression on Carol's face at night and the determined smile she'd had the next morning.

She thinks, and she says, “I know.”

Tony says something else, but she doesn’t hear. Her eyes are fixed on the slowly rising and falling chest of her best friend. She had stopped doing that before. Tony stares at her for a moment, then leaves. Jessica waits almost five minutes by the clock on the wall before she uncurls herself from her position in the chair and reaches out to take Carol’s hand. It has an IV in it. Everything is wrong. “Wake up,” she says.

Carol’s hand twitches.

 

Something’s beeping.

She hopes she didn’t forget to turn off her stove before she went to bed.

Her face hurts. Her _everything_ hurts.

Someone’s hair is by her hand. It’s Jessica’s, she knows what that feels like.

She’s never gotten to run her fingers through it like this before though.

“Carol…? Are you awake?”

 

It’s three incredibly boring and mind-numbing days after she wakes up before she’s let out of the hospital. She has some amazing friends that keep her mind occupied, though. Clint and Bobbi visit and they play cards. Peter brings a laptop and they slowly make their way through the original three Star Wars movies together. Luke, Jessica, and Dani come over and they spend three hours alternating between trying to get Dani to say fuck and then getting her to stop. (They can’t get her to stop.) Steve and Tony visit and they talk shop some, and make fun of each other some, and she gets a hug and a kiss on the forehead when they leave.

And through it all, Jessica is glued to her side. She even volunteers to move into her apartment for a few days to help make sure everything’s okay and she doesn’t fall in the shower or anything. Not that she would, but civilian doctor’s don’t really understand that, and Hank’s too much of a mother-hen sometimes. Or so Carol tells herself, even as her broken ankle protests at her trying to walk on it.

It’s with a large smile that she comes home. Chewie missed her, if the way she rubs against Carol’s legs is any indication. She still hurts, but she hasn't felt this full of energy in days. She can’t stop talking to Jessica about things they should do if she’s going to stay for a few days and she’s supposed to be on bed-rest. Really, wouldn’t it be fun to— “Jessica…?”

She turns and Jessica is simply standing there, bags on the floor around her, a frown on her face. Confusion and concern flood through Carol and she takes a few steps toward her friend. “What’s wrong? We don’t have to marathon and mock reality TV if it’s really going to bug you that much, I—“

“Stop. Just… Stop, Carol.” Jessica scrubs her face with her right hand and sighs. “You don’t get it do you?” she continues before Carol can get a word in, voice quiet. “We almost lost you.”

The lightbulb goes on in Carol’s head and she carefully picks her way around duffel bags until she’s right in front of Jessica. Gently, she takes the hand covering Jess’ face in her own and rests her still slightly bruised forehead against hers. “Hey,” she says quietly, running the backs of her fingers along Jess’ cheek. “You’re not going to lose me, okay? I’m a tough bitch, it’s going to take a lot more than spending all my energy and collapsing a building to take me out, alright?”

Jessica looks like she might either cry out of exhaustion or punch Carol in the face, so she kisses Jessica on the forehead. The tension runs out of her and she looks up at Carol, exasperated. “Tell that to the building that thought it was going to kill you.” It’s a stupid joke, but Carol laughs bright and clear and then there are lips on hers and a hand behind her neck. It's completely unexpected and takes Carol by surprise.

She’s thought of this before. Of course she has. She’s a healthy bisexual woman with an amazing best friend that also looks fantastic in spandex. There’s no way she _hasn’t_ thought about this. But thinking about it and it actually happening are two completely different things.

It actually happening is much better.

 

”You sure you’re okay to—“

“I’m sure, just— Nnngh.“

“Heh.”

“Fuck you.”

“I thought that’s what I was— Oh, _god_.”

“ _Ha!_ ”

 

It's different. Everything is different. Carol is sleeping beside her, blonde hair spread across the pillow. She’s seen Carol in the nude before, but this is different. This is… new. She trails her fingers down Carol’s arm slowly and lightly. She watches as the hairs raise slightly and she smiles. A gentle kiss is placed on the shoulder in front of her and presses her forehead into where Carol’s neck and shoulder meet.

This is completely unexpected. She can feel Carol’s breathing, hear it. She’s okay. They’re both okay and they both just slept together. Best friends aren’t supposed to sleep together. That usually ends badly. Doesn't it? And, really, it would be just their luck if they fucked this up. Jessica is the most screwed over person in the world and Carol? Carol comes pretty close if you know her entire history.

“Stop thinking and go to sleep, Jessica. For fuck’s sake.” Jessica smiles, laughs a little breathlessly and spoons Carol properly in lieu of a reply. Everything’s different.

But they’re still breathing.


End file.
